Did You Know Some National Parks Open Every Day Except Christmas?

Montezuma Castle National Monument for One

Maybe it’s because the National Parks are 100 years old this year. Happy birthday, NPS.

Montezuma Castle National Monument, a thirty-minute drive in light traffic, south from Sedona, AZ surprised many tourists looking which way to go on Thanksgiving besides the dinner table.

Trail at the foot of Montezuma Castle National Monument off US Interstate 17 in Verde Valley, AZ

Looking at the dry red rocks and desert landscape along the path at the foot of Montezuma Castle, it was hard to imagine anyone farming the area.

My friend Darlene stops to read each informative sign along the path.

Yet productive Hohokam and Sinagua native settlers grew corn, beans, squash and cotton from about 1125 AD to 1425 when they disappeared.

The hole in the side of the limestone cliff was one of many openings or alcoves into which the Southern Sinagua carved pueblos into the cliff about 10 feet. Each of these open rooms housed a small family.

Darlene and I walked the short trail admiring these open houses and chatting with visitors we met on the path with us.

Visitors from China and Porterville, CA shared the path with us on Thanksgiving morning.

These early tribes used willow trees for implements and supports in their pueblos. In spite of being built in crumbling limestone cliffs, these homes held up for 800 years.

Will ours?

For more Which Way entries, find your way to Cee Neuner’s blog. This is an easy one to enter. There’s no weekly theme. Keep a lookout for any path or road, sign, bridge, stairs. See her site for details

Do you ever pick up and head out with old friends or family, and not know where you might end up? For the next few posts, I’ll share how my friends and I spent the week in Sedona, AZ.

Share this article if you know someone who wants to spend an hour exploring an 800-year-old settlement near Sedona, AZ.